


Let It Out

by catsandspacestuff



Category: No Fandom
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-03-17
Updated: 2020-03-17
Packaged: 2021-03-01 04:48:14
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,279
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23179480
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/catsandspacestuff/pseuds/catsandspacestuff
Summary: When are nightmares more than just dreams?





	Let It Out

**Author's Note:**

> I wrote this for a scary story contest. I didn't win but I'm still pretty proud of it so I'm posting it here! I hope you guys like it!

I...I’ve never talked about this before. At least, not out loud to someone else. Well, maybe my cat, but that doesn’t really count, does it? I just- I can’t keep it to myself anymore. I’m afraid that if I do, if I don’t warn someone- 

I’m getting ahead of myself. 

Let me start at the beginning. That’s only fair, right? 

As far back as I can remember, I’ve been a vivid dreamer. If I’m honest, I’ve always had a wonderful imagination, but it seemed like my brain would wait until the cover of night to twist and spiral out of control, taking me on wild adventures. When the dreams were good, they were amazing. When they were bad, well…

So, when I had the first nightmare about 3 months ago, I didn’t think too much of it. I just figured it was the stress of my job or my family. That’s why people have nightmares, right? But then it happened again, and again, and now it’s become the only thing that I dream. 

It starts with me in the halls of my old school. It’s night time and I’m alone. Utterly and hopelessly alone. I’m running from something. I can’t see it but I can hear it. I can hear it searching for me, hear the way it thunders against the walls of the hallways. I keep trying to run for the exit but every time I think I’m about to make it, I end up in this little  chowk- y’know, one of those openings in the middle of a building where you can see the sky? There’s a tree there, and every time that I keep coming back to it, it’s died a little more, rotted and twisting. The thing that’s chasing me just keeps coming closer and now I can hear its breathing and I know it’s angry and  _ wanting _ . 

Finally, I come to that clearing for the last time and as I do, this monster steps out from the hall opposite of me. It’s a mass of writhing shadows that scream and moan. It has two hands and arms that it uses to drag itself and there’s this wet, sticky noise that makes the bile rise up in the back of my throat. Then it turns to look at me, and at the top of a stalk-like neck is a mask that is completely blank and unreadable and I  _ know _ it sees me and  _ then- _

And then I wake up. I’m home and safe in my bed. 

Like I said, I thought it was just a silly dream. Maybe I was going back to my most vulnerable place and, I don’t know, running from everything that tormented me? At least that’s what I assumed someone that interprets dreams would say. 

But...and, look, I _ know _ how this is going to sound, alright? But as the dreams started to get more frequent, they started to change. 

Now, that thing, that  _ beast _ , gets closer. When the dreams started to be a weekly occurrence, I noticed it was just an arm reaching out to me. Now, they happen every single night and it’s moving towards me, squirming closer and closer. 

The dreams, those I could live with. But now I’m doing things that aren’t- that I’m not-

About a month ago, I got invited out to a bar with some friends. It had been awhile, work keeps me busy and my schedule is always full. So of course I said yes. I got in my car and started towards South End and the next thing I heard was the sound of chains clashing together and I found myself waking up in front of my old campus. I had both of my hands on the gates and I was trying to open them. They were locked with a large iron chain; it was the only thing keeping me from actually moving forward. I don’t even remember how I got there. I remember getting in my car but the in between it’s just  _ not there. _

Needless to say I was freaked out but I wrote it off like a fool. About a week later it happened  _ again _ . I was meant to go see my parents for Sunday dinner but instead woke up to the rattling of chains once more. Even then, I didn’t start to panic. No, that was reserved for when I was at the store a few days later and noticed I had placed a set of bolt clippers in my cart without remembering I had done so. I was so disturbed by that, I had left my cart in the middle of the isle and went home. 

I...don’t go out anymore. I dropped my keys out of my flat window. I couldn’t trust myself, y’know? I’ve been living off of my food storage since last week. My work is starting to not take my ‘stomach flu’ excuse. My family is worried about me, but what am I supposed to say? No one will believe me. Why should they? I feel like my life is falling apart around me but I can’t go outside, can’t go to that campus because if I do…

Every night the thing just keeps getting closer and closer still. Half way through last week, i-it, god, it  _ touched _ me. It grabbed ahold of my wrist and bent it’s face o-or mask or  _ whatever _ down so that we were eye level and it  _ spoke _ to me. It was like a hundred voices all at once, hissing and screaming and wailing. It said “Let. It. Out.” Then the next night it grabbed both of my shoulders and said it again, but it was louder; “Let. It. Out.” 

Ever since it started to grab me, I’ve been seeing it on the edge of my vision. Right in that blind spot where the shadows itch at your mind. I decided I wouldn’t go to bed anymore, wouldn’t sleep. I’ve been terrified of what would happen if...but there’s only so long you can force your eyes open, only so much coffee you can drink before all it does is make your stomach lurch. 

I had been doing well. I really, really had. I had made it almost 6 whole days. I don’t know when I finally passed out. It had to be around one or two in the morning but…

Last night, it grabbed my face and it screamed- a shrill, horrible noise like electricity surging through a lightbulb before it breaks. It hurt and I could feel my knees go out from underneath me. But it wouldn’t let me go. It just repeated itself over and over and over “Let it out, let it out, let it out!” I couldn’t find my voice but I could feel I was crying. I tried to claw it away but my fingers just sunk into its shadowy flesh. It felt like I was sticking my hands into mud, cool and thick. I felt something splitting from its skin, crawling up my hands and wrists, trapping me further as it continued to scream. 

After what felt like an eternity there, I snapped awake only to find my ears bleeding and scratches along my cheeks. Now, those shadows alongside my vision are darker, more real. I see its face- that horrible blank mask- peeking out from behind doorways, ghosting behind me in the mirror. I hear it whispering to me, those awful words, like a plea, like a comand. It’s so angry and _ hungry _ . 

I’m terrified of what will happen when I fall asleep next. I know it’s just waiting for me, waiting to-to...

But I can’t stay awake forever. 


End file.
